Tuesday evening brought a flash flood warning for Northern Broward County, covering Pompano Beach, Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, Sea Ranch Lakes and a string of nearby communities, as storms dumped two to three inches of rain on ground already soaked from days of downpours. The warning, in effect until 11 p.m. EST, told residents to move immediately to higher ground and avoid walking or driving through floodwaters.
The NWS Miami
alert covered Pompano Beach, Lauderdale-by-the-Sea and Sea Ranch Lakes, according to a report from
defconlevel.com
, which tracked the National Weather Service bulletin issued at 8:57 p.m.
Radar Showed Heavy Rain Still Falling
At the time the warning went out, radar indicated thunderstorms producing heavy rain across the area, with two to three inches already down and another one to two inches possible before the warning expired, per the same defconlevel.com report. The bulletin flagged flash flooding risk for small creeks and streams, urban areas, highways, streets, underpasses and other low-lying or poorly drained spots.
A rainfall-tracking page, raindrop.farm, logged 4.17 inches in Pompano Beach's 33066 zip code since midnight as of 9:52 p.m. Tuesday, with 4.63 inches falling over the preceding 24 hours. Rain had been building for days: the South Florida Sun Sentinel reported that Sunrise saw an estimated 6 to 9 inches of rainfall on Monday alone, and the newspaper quoted the National Weather Service's Chris Fisher warning that even half an inch to an inch more on Tuesday could cause problems given how saturated the ground already was.
A Soggy Week Across South Florida
The Sun Sentinel reported rain chances between 70% and 80% for both Monday and Tuesday before conditions were expected to ease, with forecasts dropping to 40% to 50% Wednesday, 20% to 30% Thursday and 10% to 20% Friday. Over the seven days ending November 3, raindrop.farm recorded 10.32 inches in Pompano Beach, and the site put the city's year-to-date rainfall at 73.78 inches against a normal-to-date figure of 54.40 inches.
Broward's storms came as parts of Florida's Space Coast were still cleaning up from what the National Weather Service described as a one-in-a-1,000-year rainfall event, according to Florida Today. The outlet reported that North Grant-Valkaria took the hardest hit at 23.69 inches, that the flooding led to at least two deaths, and that Brevard County sheriff's deputies and Florida Fish and Wildlife rescued more than 160 people on Monday. A Palm Bay Fire Rescue official cautioned that flooded roadways remain unsafe even when the water appears to be receding, Florida Today reported.
What Residents Were Told To Do
For Broward residents under Tuesday night's warning, the instructions from the National Weather Service were direct: get to higher ground immediately and never attempt to walk or drive through standing or moving floodwater. The warning applied specifically to the Northern Broward County communities named above through 11 p.m., with conditions tied to the storms tracking through the region that evening.
